Home Owners Insurance in Harris County (The Woodlands: how much, new home, closing)

[greenie]

Hello,
We are relocating to The Woodlands in a few weeks and are looking to line up Home Insurance. Apparantly, some of the companies we called to get quotes from do not insure in Harris County right now. (We will be living in Creekside Park, which falls in Harris County). Does anyone living in Harris County have recommendations on Insurance Companies? We are looking to have home and car insurance with the same company.

Thanks!

[BEVH]

We are moving to Harris County. What do you mean they will not insure. Do you have a website that talks about this. I am really concerned now.

[greenie]

Allstate told my husband they would not provide homeowners insurance in Harris County. We are still waiting on a final quote from State Farm.

[jflores]

Originally Posted by greenie

Allstate told my husband they would not provide homeowners insurance in Harris County. We are still waiting on a final quote from State Farm.

Thats correct Allstate does not actually write homeowners insurance unless you are an old customer, they do provide quotes however they are underwritten by another party. State Farm was a bit expensive, so I went with Farmers.

[tstone]

Originally Posted by jflores

Thats correct Allstate does not actually write homeowners insurance unless you are an old customer, they do provide quotes however they are underwritten by another party. State Farm was a bit expensive, so I went with Farmers.

Didn't know that. I have Allstate "Lloyds", since 2005.

It's about $1,800/yr through them. Has gone up roughly 10% per year. Everyone else offering policies are closer to $2,400. Trust me, I've checked. But this is for the Clear Lake/Ellington Field area, 7-8 miles from the bay.

[jflores]

Yeah, well I searched since I am in the process of closing a house. Allstate would go only through another party. Statefarm quoted me for $2500, I managed to go with Farmers for $1750. The OP should look into nationwide, Amica, Farmers my stance on insurance is that there all good until you make that first claim, thats when it hits the fan.

[tstone]

The best thing seems to be to have an emergency cash fund to cover a higher deductible. Raise the deductibles to about 3%, then set aside your 3% in some type of savings you never touch. You'd be surprised how much that drops your rate. Also make sure the agent doesn't increase your home value too much. They tend to do it every year, which tends to run overboard fairly quickly. You gotta put your foot down.

[Supermac34]

Nationwide just insured our home. Their quotes beat the crud out of Allstate and Statefarm...for more coverage as well. You may want to check with them for a quote.

Chubb is also a company to check out, but I believe your home has to be over $500K for them to consider it.

[tstone]

Strange, Nationwide was the most expensive of all the quotes I received. I heard about them through here, but no luck for me. I guess it's all in the area you live in.

[Supermac34]

Perhaps. There might be specific price ranges, areas, subdivisions, etc. that they may be targeting.

We HAD been with Allstate, and when we moved into our new home they basically slapped us with the fact that they didn't want to insure in Harris county any more and were about double Nationwide.

Statefarm was about 20% more for us. I forget what Farmers was, but they were a little more.

I ALMOST went with Chubb and paid a little premium to get their outstanding service and reputation, but I figured I wanted it as low as possible right now. I may switch eventually however.